MTel R10: Ivanchuk wins Sofia by 1½ points

5/18/2008 – Ivan Cheparinov threw everything at him, but Vassily Ivanchuk defended coolly and scored a final black-piece victory to clinch the 2008 MTel Masters, with 8.0/10 and a performance of 2977. Second was Veselin Topalov, who drew Radjabov to end at 6.5/10, with a 2839 performance. We bring you a final report with commentary, pictures and more great videos by Europe Echecs.

The tournament, which is being held in the Central Military Club in Sofia,
Bulgaria, is a double round-robin (all play all, with white and black). The
rate of play is 90 minutes for 40 moves + 1 hour to the end of the game. Starting
time: 15:00h local time (12:00h UTC), except the final round, which starts at
14:00h.

Radjabov has worked this all out: Black can now force a draw by perpetual with
a rook and bishop: 28.Rc1 R2xd5 29.Rc8 Rd1+ 30.Kf2 R1d2+ 31.Ke1 Rd1+
32.Kf2 R1d2+ 33.Ke1 Rd1+ 34.Kf2 R1d2+ ½-½.

The game of the day was Cheparinov-Ivanchuk, with the pre-round possibility
of a win by Cheparinov and Topalov to allow the latter to catch Ivanchuk in
the table and force a tiebreak. In the Sicilian Taimanov Cheparinov castled
long and launched a vigorous kingside attack, which was coolly refuted by the
experienced Ukrainian.

Is this uncompromising or what? Cheparinov is going after the black king with
everything he has. But Ivanchuk, who has played at the highest level of chess
for decades, knows how to deal with this kind of thing. 15...Bb7 16.Kb1
Rfc8 17.Rg3 b4 18.Na4 Bd8 19.Nc1 Bc6 20.b3 Bxa4 21.bxa4 Nc6 22.Be3 Qb8 23.Rh3
Nb6 24.Qh4 h6 25.Qg3 Nxa4 26.Rxd6 hxg5 27.Bd3? Bf6 28.e5 Bxe5

It looks really scary, with all the white pieces lined up for an assault on
the lone king, and all the black defenders tucked away on the kingside.Which
colour would you choose to play? 29.Rh8+ Kxh8 30.Qh3+ Kg8 31.Qh7+ Kf8
32.Rd7.

White is treatening mate in one with his queen on Qh8#, and if Black plays
32...g6 it is 33...Qxf7#. But Ivanchuk has it all worked out: 32...Nc3+
33.Ka1 Nb5+ and now if 34.Kb1 Black plays 34...Na3 mate! It's all over.
0-1.

A final handshake as Cheparinov resigns the game

Final standings

Video reports by Europe Echecs

The video report "Round 10 in music" captures some interesting images
from the tournament:

Ivanchuk adjusting the black pieces before the game (0:27 min into the video)

... and then jumps up to shake again when the arbiter starts the clock (1:10
min)

The two main rivals, Topalov and Ivanchuk, watching each other

At the closing ceremony the players – here Cheparinov, Ivanchuk and Bu
– get cartoons of themselves – with Ivanchuk getting a good bottle
of Champaign in addition (video report "Cocktail Party")

...AND a valuable Slavic icon (while Cheparinov holds the bottle)

All pictures on this page are taken from the videos produced by GM Robert Fontaine
and the Europe Echecs team. They
have given us a unique view of the tournament, with daily wrap-ups and atmosphere
reports. Robert has promised to work on his French accent – we implore
you, Bob, leave it the way it is!

Links

All games
so far in PGNThe games are being broadcast live on the official
web site and on the chess server Playchess.com.
If you are not a member you can download ChessBase Light, which gives
you immediate access. You can also use it to read, replay and analyse
the PGN games.

See also

5/17/2008 – Bulgaria's top grandmaster Veselin Topalov, rated 2767, had won three of his last four games; Chinese GM Bu Xiangzhi, 2708, had lost three of his last four encounters and was languishing at the bottom of the table. Today they met head-on, and Bu won the game! With a round to go Vassily Ivanchuk is a full point ahead and playing "goal-keeper". Illustrated report with videos.Discuss

5/17/2008 – Veselin Topalov had little difficulty beating his second Ivan Cheparinov, while Levon Aronian blundered one move before the time controls (see his round seven interview) to throw away the full point against Teimour Radjabov. Meanwhile Vassily Ivanchuk was lucky to survive against tail-ender Bu Xiangzhi. Full report with a simultaneous exhibition and interview with Boris Spassky.Discuss

Discuss

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